jimorus
Registered
I recently bought the FIX from REEF and just posted this on Wetpixel the other evening
"I recently purchased the FIX housing, This is only my second housing and the first was an Oly so I have only touched plastic housings before this.
My wife and I did extensive 35mm and medium format shooting for several years so I have used good equipment and noticed something different on this housing than even on Hassie, Contax, or Bronica medium format land products. The tripod mount is not centered on the center axis of the lens but is two 1/4 20 holes approximately 1/3 from either edge of the housing. Maybe this is normal with the better housings but isn't something I had ever seen.
The off sets made fitting it on a tray with a centered mounding hole a bit challenging to get the handles mounted properly to allow for a comfortable grip and to easily reach the shutter button and to keep the symmetry that to me adds to the ease of balancing it in my hands. The holes in the housing are helicoiled which makes for a stronger set of threads than if they were just cut into the aluminum. If you have ever stripped a 1/4 20 bolt in aluminum you have an idea of how nice this really is. The actual thread strengh into the aluminum is alnost the same as a 3/8 bolt would be, so pulling out the threads with the thumbscrew should be nearly impossible.
I bought an S tray from Jack at opticaloceansales.com. I trimmed a bit off the left side of the tray and then had to add an additional hole on that side of the tray for the second mounting bolt for the left arm. He also provided a new-slighty used ys110 and some relatively inexpensive fiber and ends for the fiber. I did need an additional washer under each of the bolt heads to keep the supplied bolts from extending about half a turn through the thickness of the tray and arm assembly.
I haven't had it underwater yet but have been shooting with dual ys110 strobes and a small focus light around the house, basement and yard to get used to the controls. Other than the control wheel dial being a bit stiff all the controls work well and work just as they do on the camera itself.
If you are plannig on using the less expensive fiber with no ends plan on buying adapters for the connection to the housing. The adapter on the camera has the option to connect two S&S connections or something else that is about an eigth of an inch in diameter. Another call to Jack got me some Fantasea adapters that mounted to the raw fiber and allowed it them to plug into the housing's S&S adapter nicely. I had purchased the housing from Reef and was a little surprised when they had no suggestions on what to use. I can't be the only one that had this problem. It stemmed from buying my first ys110 used and using the less expensive fiber with the velcro connections on my OLY and wanting to use my current flash equipment on the new housing. There was not enough room by the flash window to use two of the fancy velcro mounts. When I mentioned needing a second ys110 Jack offered one from stock at a less expensive cost than the used one I was going to buy. Yes it is old stock but it was where I was going anyway so another thanks to Jack at Optical Oceans for quick shipping good suggestions and reasonable pricing."
jim morus
"I recently purchased the FIX housing, This is only my second housing and the first was an Oly so I have only touched plastic housings before this.
My wife and I did extensive 35mm and medium format shooting for several years so I have used good equipment and noticed something different on this housing than even on Hassie, Contax, or Bronica medium format land products. The tripod mount is not centered on the center axis of the lens but is two 1/4 20 holes approximately 1/3 from either edge of the housing. Maybe this is normal with the better housings but isn't something I had ever seen.
The off sets made fitting it on a tray with a centered mounding hole a bit challenging to get the handles mounted properly to allow for a comfortable grip and to easily reach the shutter button and to keep the symmetry that to me adds to the ease of balancing it in my hands. The holes in the housing are helicoiled which makes for a stronger set of threads than if they were just cut into the aluminum. If you have ever stripped a 1/4 20 bolt in aluminum you have an idea of how nice this really is. The actual thread strengh into the aluminum is alnost the same as a 3/8 bolt would be, so pulling out the threads with the thumbscrew should be nearly impossible.
I bought an S tray from Jack at opticaloceansales.com. I trimmed a bit off the left side of the tray and then had to add an additional hole on that side of the tray for the second mounting bolt for the left arm. He also provided a new-slighty used ys110 and some relatively inexpensive fiber and ends for the fiber. I did need an additional washer under each of the bolt heads to keep the supplied bolts from extending about half a turn through the thickness of the tray and arm assembly.
I haven't had it underwater yet but have been shooting with dual ys110 strobes and a small focus light around the house, basement and yard to get used to the controls. Other than the control wheel dial being a bit stiff all the controls work well and work just as they do on the camera itself.
If you are plannig on using the less expensive fiber with no ends plan on buying adapters for the connection to the housing. The adapter on the camera has the option to connect two S&S connections or something else that is about an eigth of an inch in diameter. Another call to Jack got me some Fantasea adapters that mounted to the raw fiber and allowed it them to plug into the housing's S&S adapter nicely. I had purchased the housing from Reef and was a little surprised when they had no suggestions on what to use. I can't be the only one that had this problem. It stemmed from buying my first ys110 used and using the less expensive fiber with the velcro connections on my OLY and wanting to use my current flash equipment on the new housing. There was not enough room by the flash window to use two of the fancy velcro mounts. When I mentioned needing a second ys110 Jack offered one from stock at a less expensive cost than the used one I was going to buy. Yes it is old stock but it was where I was going anyway so another thanks to Jack at Optical Oceans for quick shipping good suggestions and reasonable pricing."
jim morus